There is a long list of things that can easily spike your blood sugar levels, but the Somogyi effect may be one of the strangest ones.
Let’s take a closer look at what the Somogyi effect is really and how to handle it if it happens to you.
What is the effect of Somogyi?
The Somogyi effect is when you experience severe hypoglycemia followed by serious spikes – not noticing until you wake up while you sleep.
During Somogyi effects, severe hypoglycemia occurs without waking up from deep sleep. The liver then responds by releasing stored glycogen, breaking it down into glucose, bringing blood sugar levels back to a safe level.
As someone experiencing this, you will notice simply sleeping on your blood sugar level. lowand awakened with very high blood sugar (generally above 250 mg/dl), there is no clear explanation about the spikes.
This is self-protection for your body. However, it only occurs when hypoglycemia is severe enough to cause glycogen dumping from the liver.
This physiological glycogen “backup plan” can also occur at other times of the day, but the Somogyi effect refers to the severe, low, low height that occurs during sleep.
What causes the Somogyi effect?
In short, it is the result of taking more insulin than the body needed in combination with other variables.
- Too much insulin taken just before or after exercise
- Insulin consumed too much with food
- Too much insulin to fix high blood sugar
- I’m taking insulin but forgetting to eat
- Take non-insulin medications that lower blood sugar levels
- Insulin pump malfunction
- Incorrectly take the wrong dose/type of insulin
As juggling many variables of glucose control throughout the day, the somogie effect is one of the more serious consequences of extreme glucose variability.
Keep in mind that rapidly acting insulin stays in the body for about 4 hours. This means that insulin taken at 9pm can lead to severe hypoglycemia at midnight or 1am.
This act of blood sugar and insulin juggling is not easy!
If you think you’ve experienced somogyi effects…
Unfortunately, there are many that can cause hyperglycemia in the morning.
Identifying many variables that may have affected blood glucose levels is not simple, and the somogyi effect probably won’t happen again and again without waking up at some point in the night due to normal symptoms of hypoglycemia.
First, talk to your medical team or diabetic educator about your concerns and potential somogyi effects.
Secondly, wake up once or twice in the middle of the night and set an alarm several nights to check your blood sugar levels.
Third, we share blood glucose results with our health care team to identify evidence of somogyi effects. This can help you regulate insulin or other medications.
Finally, if you are not using CGM yet, start a conversation with your healthcare team. CGM can quickly provide life-saving insights about these blood sugar mysteries.
Other potential causes of morning hyperglycemia
If your morning hyperglycemia does not appear to be a result of the somogie effect, Instead, ask yourself if any of the following is possible:
Too little basal/background insulin
If you regularly experience severe hyperglycemia in the morning, it may be this Or it is caused by one of the other variables below: You may actually need to adjust with your background insulin dose (via the base speed of your pump or (Your long-acting insulin dose).
“Well, I weigh the same, my diet is the same. Why do I need more insulin?”
Other variables can have a major impact, such as an increase in your daily stress levels, a decrease in your activity levels, or a new medication you are taking.
Consult your medical team about adjusting basal/background insulin to prevent this recurrent rise in blood glucose levels.
Dawn phenomenon
The “dawn phenomenon” can easily explain spikes consistently in the morning.
This recurrent hyperglycemia and insulin resistance are the healthy and normal parts of the human body. Hormones like cortisol, testosterone and glycogen all work, but inevitably require insulin.
Many people simply take a small bolus of insulin to explain the blood sugar spikes this causes. (Personally, if I get up and check my glucose level, I take one unit of insulin as soon as I get low, and then the symptoms usually go down!)
Eat fat/carbohydrate foods in the evening
For example, you can get enough insulin to technically cover the carbohydrates and fats of pizza you ate last night at 8pm, but the long-term effects of insulin resistance from high-fat foods can easily lead to blood sugar spikes when the large amount of dietary bolus disappear the next morning.
A simple solution to this is to increase your basal speed when you wake up in the morning or take a small amount of insulin, which acts rapidly.
Too little sleep
If you go to sleep at 3am after a wild night out with friends, or if you stand up to study for an exam, your body won’t appreciate you. Instead, it responds by producing more cortisol and making up for the desperately craving lack of rest. Increased cortisol production can lead to stubborn hyperglycemia levels all day long!
We certainly can’t control all the little things that affect our blood sugar levels, but the Somogyi effect should be prevented once we have enough information to understand why it is happening. It needs to be taken very seriously and dealt with as soon as possible.
